Style: Schemes and Tropes

Parallelism

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
- Emphasizes similarities and *connections.*

Isocolon

Use of parallel elements similar not only in *structure, as in parallelism, but in length* (same number of words or even syllables).
- Addition of symmetry of length to similarity of structure contributes to the rhythm of sentences.

Antithesis

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure.
- Emphasizes dissimilarities and contraries; produces the quality of an aphorism.

Parenthesis

Insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence.
- Allows the *author's voice* to be heard commenting or editorializing, thereby *charging the statement with emotion*.

Ellipse

Deliberate omission of a word or of words which are readily implied by the context.
- An artful and arresting means of securing economy of expression.

Asyndeton

Deliberate *omission of conjunctions* between a series of related clauses.
- Produces a *hurried* rhythm in the sentence.

Polysyndeton

The opposite of asyndeton: the *deliberate use of many conjunctions.*
- Suggests flow or continuity in some instances, special emphasis in others.

Anaphora

Repetition of the *same word* or group of words at the *beginnings of successive clauses.*
-Always used deliberately, this scheme helps to establish a marked rhythm and often produces string *emotional effect*.

Epistrophe

Repetition of the *same word* or group of words at the *ends of successive clauses*.
- Sets up a pronounced rhythm and secures a special emphasis.

Epanalepsis

repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.
- Gives language an appearance of emotional spontaneity.

Anadiplosis

*Repetition of the last word* of one clause at the *beginning* of the following clause.

Climax

Arrangement of words, phrases or clauses in an order of *increasing importance.*

Antimetabole

Repetition of *words,* in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.
- Produces the impressive turn of phrase typical of an aphorism.

Chiasmus

Reversal of *grammatical structure* in successive phrases or clauses (literally, "the criss-cross).
- Like antimetabole, but without the repetition.

Synechdoche

A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole.

Metonymy

Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant.

Antanaclasis (pun)

Repetition of a word in two different senses.

Periphrasis

Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name.

Apostrophe

Addressing an absent person or a personified abstraction. Apostrophe imbues its subject with an emotional charge as personification does.

Litotes

Deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive someone but to enhance the impressiveness of what is stated.

Rhetorical Question

Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely. Rhetorical questions can be an effective persuasive device, subtly influencing the kind of response one wants to get from an audience, and are often more effective as a persuasive device than is a direct assertion.

Irony

Use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word. Irony must be used with great caution: if the speaker misjudges the intelligence of her audience, she may find that her audience takes her words in their ostensible sense rather than in the intended opposite sense.

Paradox

An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth. paradox is like oxymoron in that both are built on contradictories, but paradox may not be a trope at all, because it involves not so much a "turn" of meaning in juxtaposed words as a "turn" of meaning in the whole statement.